A Pennsylvania man decapitated his girlfriend with a machete at their home in suburban Philadelphia, then sawed her body into pieces in response to what he felt was “a threat to his masculinity,” Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Friday.
Nicholas Peter Scurria, 32, was arrested early this morning and charged with two counts of murder, abuse of a corpse, and possession of an “instrument of crime,” according to court records.
Police responded to the Willow Apartments in Clifton Heights following a report of domestic violence from a neighbor, who called 911 at 4:41 a.m., saying they woke up to loud screams coming from the neighboring apartment. The neighbor, who is not identified by name or gender in a Clifton Heights Police Department incident report, said it suddenly became quiet and that they then “heard sawing-like sounds and the gathering or shifting of plastic materials.”
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One of the officers saw a light on in a first-floor apartment and walked around back, where he peered through the bedroom window and spotted Scurria sitting on the bed, “cutting/sawing a female victim’s left leg with a machete, states the report, which was first obtained by Fox 29. The corpse had been beheaded and was lying on the floor.
Police forced their way inside and arrested Scurria at gunpoint.
As cops escorted a handcuffed Scurria to a squad car parked out front, he “made unsolicited statements, repeating, ‘She tried to cut my balls off,’” the report continues.
Under questioning, Scurria told detectives that he and the victim lived together and had gotten into an argument. Scurria and the unnamed woman, who has not yet been publicly identified pending family notification, lived together, but Scurria said he considered the relationship over, according to the report.
“The defendant stated that during the argument he knocked the victim unconscious after repeatedly striking her in the head/face areas,” it concludes. “The defendant admitted he attempted to get rid of the evidence by dismembering various parts of the victim’s body.”
Scurria served 58 days in county jail on a burglary charge in 2011, according to court records.
“This morning’s horrific murder is a sad reminder of the threat that many women face on a daily basis,” Stollsteimer said. “Based on the defendant’s statements at the time of his arrest, in response to what the defendant perceived as a threat to his masculinity, he brutally killed—and then dismembered—his victim. His actions were cowardly as well as evil, and he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
